Tribute

Like a lot of people, I was ready to start fresh with 2017.  However, the new year has not been so kind.

My father passed away on January 2nd.  He fought an unwinnable battle with brain cancer for 13 months.  While I knew his death was imminent during the last month or so of his life, I still could not prepare myself for the moment.  I'm only 31 so I was not ready to lose him with so much more of my life (and his) ahead.

In the past week and a half I have barely even touched cards and had even less of a desire to blog.  I spent my week off from work playing The Division as a way to distract myself.  I'm now finally ready to share a small tribute to my dad.

My dad never had his own trading card but he did share a name with someone who did.  As you will see, he did not have a common name so it's quite remarkable he shared a name with a professional sports player.  Out of the four cards produced for the player--Ken Solheim-- I currently own one.  I will try to pickup the other three at some point as a small tribute.

Photo courtesy of The Trading Card Database

What is interesting is that my dad and the hockey player lived in the same town for a while.  That created a funny story that my dad liked to tell (and I will try my best to retell it).

Scene: Minneapolis, Minnesota. Early 1980s.
It was late at night when my dad received a phone call waking him up from his sleep.  He said that the first thing that popped into his mind was that "shit, someone has died."  When my dad answered the phone on the other end was a young sounding woman with a southern drawl.

Woman: "Hi is this Ken?"
Dad: "Yeah"
Woman: "The one from Minneapolis?"
Dad: "Yeah.."
Woman: "And do you play hockey?"
Dad: "A little bit." (My dad maintains he wasn't lying at the time because he did play some hockey)
Woman: "Well this is Suzy"
Dad: "Who?"
Suzy: "You know, Suzy!"
Dad: "No, I don't..."
Suzy: "Suzy, from the motel!"
Dad: "I don't know any Suzy"
Suzy: "Sure you do! From last year down in Nashville"
Dad: "Sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else.  Goodnight" *click*

The whole time my dad was confused as to what was going on given the middle of the night phone call.  Best my dad guessed was that the hockey player Ken Solheim met some girl named Suzy in Nashville and told her that he played hockey for the Minnesota North Stars.  So when Suzy tried to find hockey player Ken, she looked in the phone book and my dad's number would have been in there.  The timing of it all was too funny.

I'll likely have sparse posting for this week and hopefully try more regular posting next week.